Addressing the forgotten with fashion

Turns out obituaries inspire readers -- and budding fashion designers.

Avalon Hester, a 17-year-old art student in Napa, Calif., was so intrigued by the women featured in "Overlooked," The New York Times' new series on groundbreaking women who did not receive Times obituaries when they died, that she painted portraits of them. Hester then transformed seven of those portraits into a dress:

These are some pictures of my Final Project - a 12 lbs dress made of 7 full scale portraits on canvas. The portraits are both oil and acrylic, and they’re of women from the New York Times Overlooked Obituary Project. Over the 167 year printing history of the New York Times, only 15% of their obituaries have been of women. This piece used that project to talk about our culture of dismissing women, and how the vulnerability of sharing experiences can abolish it. I’m really proud of this project and the way that Oxbow shaped my art throughout the semester. Thank you to everyone who came to Final Show, and helped make this whole semester possible. Photo cred: the amazing @zaelanewcomb @nytimes @nytimesfashion #nyt #newyorktimes #overlooked #art #oxbow #fashion #dress

A post shared by Avalon Hester (@avalon.hester) on May 15, 2018 at 9:19pm PDT

A change in leadership

I'm thrilled to announce that The Society of Professional Obituary Writers has a new leader. Adam Bernstein, obituary editor for The Washington Post, was nominated for the position and has kindly accepted the responsibility.

Bernstein has spent his career putting the "post" in The Washington Post, first as an obituary writer and then as editor. The American Society of Newspaper Editors recognized Bernstein’s ability to exhume “the small details and anecdotes that get at the essence of the person” and to write stories that are “complex yet stylish.” He is featured in Marilyn Johnson’s book about the obit-writing craft, “The Dead Beat.”

Among the obituaries Bernstein has written, his favorites are those of Edward von Kloberg III, the lobbyist for dictators and despots who embraced the slogan “shame is for sissies”; and the filmmaker Billy Wilder, who wooed his future wife with the line, “I’d worship the ground you walked on, if only you lived in a better neighborhood.”

Perhaps wisely, Bernstein never tried to top Wilder when wooing his own future wife, Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Marina Walker Guevara. They have two children, Santiago and Mia.

As the fourth president of SPOW, Adam has seen wonderful examples of leadership. Alana Baranick, Andrew Meacham and Maureen O'Donnell all put their own stamp on the society and helped it to flourish. I have no doubt that Bernstein will lead us well.

What makes Irish eyes smile

SPOW President Maureen O'Donnell once had a professor who told her: "There is an Irish obsession with knowing who died." And it's true! While looking into the nicknames for obits, O'Donnell discovered they were also called:

• The Irish Scratch Sheet
• The Irish Sports Pages
• The Irish Racing Form
• The Irish Comics

Inspired by these discoveries, Maureen wrote an article for the Chicago Sun-Times about the tradition. Click here to learn more.

Quote of the week

"I love reading the obituaries. On the weekend, hot coffee, feet up, I quietly read. I always finish with a deep contented sigh. One morning I told my husband I felt I had met many new friends. Too bad, said he, that they all died." --Bonnie Brown

Covering suicide in the obits

Although this is a difficult topic to cover, obituary writers must not shy away from listing a cause of death, no matter how sensitive. However, there are ways to properly handle such stories with care and compassion.

As a service to the news media, the Canadian Association For Suicide Prevention has developed a series of guidelines to help present information about suicide in a responsible manner.

FMI: Click here.

(h/t Ron Csillag)

Got questions about obituary writing?

#IAmA reporter who writes about the dead for a living for the Chicago Sun-Times/prez of the Society of Professional Obituary Writers. And yes, we obit writers sometimes cry. On Feb. 20 Ask Me Anything @reddit_AMA. @suntimesobits @suntimes @obituarywriters pic.twitter.com/KoPJdkuZ2g

— Maureen O'Donnell (@suntimesobits) January 26, 2018

Drinks that are to die for

SPOW president Maureen O'Donnell procured the recipe for the "To Die For" cocktail that Billy Sunday served to the Society Of Professional Obituary Writers during this year's ObitCon:

TO DIE FOR
(Serving size is one cocktail)

2 oz. white rum
1 oz. strawberry syrup (fresh puréed strawberries- 1/1 ratio of strawberry and simple syrup)
3/4 oz. lime juice
1/2 oz. Fernet-Branca

Shake and top with sparkling soda if you want it carbonated.

And if you're looking for a drink that could wake the dead, check out the Obituary Cocktail.

Featured quotation

"I read obituaries every day to learn what sorts of lives are available to us, to see an entire life compressed into a few column inches, to fit the whole story in my eye at once." --Sarah Mangus

Congratulations to the winners of the 2017 Grimmys

The Society of Professional Obituary Writers honored the best writers in the field at the Grimmys Award ceremony, which was held last weekend during ObitCon 2017. Reporters and editors from all over the world submitted entries to the Grimmys Contest. And the 2017 winners are:

Best short form obit - Neil Steinberg of the Chicago Sun-Times for his obituary of Cookie the cockatoo

Best long form obit - Tom Hawthorn of The Globe and Mail (Toronto, Canada), for his obituary of Al Howie, an eccentric ultramarathoner who ran across Canada

Best obit of an ordinary Joe/Jane - Maureen O'Donnell of the Chicago Sun-Times, for her obituary of Phyllis Larson, the Turkey Talk-Line expert who rescued holiday meals

Obituary writer of the year - Linnea Crowther of Legacy.com

The Alana Baranick Award For Lifetime Achievement In Obituary Writing - Andrew Meacham, Tampa Bay Times

Each winner received a trophy shaped like a tombstone that included the society's unique Memento Mori logo, which was designed by Mairead Rosati.

ObitCon 2017 was a great success!

The fifth conference of The Society of Professional Obituary Writers was held Oct. 13-15, 2017 at the Legacy.com offices in Evanston, Ill. If you were unable to attend, here's what you missed:

On Friday, ObitCon participants gathered for a meet and greet at Bookends and Beginnings in Evanston, Ill. Afterwards, society members enjoyed a delicious meal at Pete Miller's Seafood & Prime Steak.

On Saturday, attendees gathered at the Legacy.com offices in Evanston, Ill., and engaged in "grave discussions" about obits and obituary writing. Several guest speakers gave short talks, including Stephen Segal of Legacy.com, Adam Bernstein of The Washington Post, Susan Soper of ObitKit and Owen Youngman of Northwestern University. SPOW members also enjoyed a screening of the documentary, "Obit," followed by a discussion of the film with director Vanessa Gould.

On Sunday, the Grimmys were awarded in the following categories: best short form obit (under 800 words), best long form obit (over 800 words), best obit of an ordinary Joe/Jane, obituary writer of the year and lifetime achievement in obituary writing.

If you missed any of these events, just hop over to Twitter and read the tweets posted under the hashtag #obitcon.

ObitCon 2017 is next month. Coming?

Today's the last day to register for ObitCon. Tickets are just $25. Hope you can make it!

Registration for ObitCon 2017 opens

The fifth conference of The Society of Professional Obituary Writers will be held Oct. 13-15, 2017 at the Legacy.com offices in Evanston, Ill. Our current schedule of events is as follows:

On Friday, ObitCon participants will meet for dinner and drinks at an area restaurant.

On Saturday, participants will engage in discussions about obits and obituary writing, and attend a screening of the documentary, "Obit." A continental breakfast and a full lunch will be served. Special guests will be announced soon.


On Sunday, Grimmys will be awarded in the following categories: best short form obit (under 800 words), best long form obit (over 800 words), best obit of an ordinary Joe/Jane, obituary writer of the year and lifetime achievement in obituary writing.

If you'd like to join your fellow writers on the death beat for a three-day weekend of professional development and camaraderie, be sure to submit your vacation requests now. Tickets for the conference cost $25 per person.

To register, click here.

For those unable to attend, all events will be tweeted using the hashtag #obitcon.

ANNOUNCING: The Grimmys 2017

The Society of Professional Obituary Writers is currently accepting entries and nominations for outstanding obituary writing published in 2016-2017.

The contest offers awards, affectionately known as The Grimmys, in the following categories:

* Best short form obit (under 800 words)

* Best long form obit (over 800 words)

* Best obit of an ordinary Joe/Jane

* Obituary writer of the year

* Lifetime achievement in obituary writing


Reporters and editors from all over the world may submit entries to the contest, which will be blind-judged by a panel of society members. Trophies will be awarded to the winners at ObitCon 2017, the society's biennial conference.

ObitCon will be held Oct. 13-15 at the Legacy.com offices in Evanston, Ill. The event will feature discussions and professional development workshops for writers on the death beat.

Contest rules are posted on the society's website.

Deadline to enter is August 31, 2017.

WATCH: If You're Not in the Obit, Eat Breakfast

They Died (Or Did They?)

One of the things that drive obituary writers mad is euphemisms for death. Following AP style, journalists should use the words "death," "dead" or "died" in their stories. The deceased does not "go with God," "follow Jesus home," "cross the Rainbow Bridge" or "pass away."

Some euphemisms still make it into print, especially in paid death notices, and now there's an Instagram account devoted to them. Check out They Didn't Die here.

ObitCon 2017 Announced

The fifth conference of The Society of Professional Obituary Writers (SPOW) will be held Oct. 13-15, 2017 in Evanston, Ill. If you'd like to join your fellow writers on the death beat for a three-day weekend of professional development and comraderie, be sure to submit your vacation requests now.

Details about panels, readings, special guests, tickets and the Grimmies will be posted on our website in the coming weeks.

XXX of obit writers?

The Quill Cafe has put together a rather extensive list of collective nouns for writers. Examples include:

* An ambiance of writers
* A creation of writers
* A dispatch of writers
* An idea of writers
* A sentence of writers
* A subplot of writers

What should be the collective noun for obituary writers?

Where are the women?

Reader Joan Tarbox of Rochester, N.Y., recently complained that the obituary pages in The New York Times were dominated by men.

“I’d love to track the obits for a month so I could give you some hard statistics,” she wrote.

The Times' public editor, Liz Spayd, decided to do the work for her and learned that 75 percent of the obits published in 2016 memorialized the life of a man.

It's likely the statistics are similar at other news organizations. Any ideas for how we, the obituary writers, can address this disparity?

How does novelist Megan Abbott spend her Sunday mornings?

"I am an insomniac. I wake up at 6 or 6:30 and get out of bed immediately. The coffee starts right away. Then I get to the computer as quickly as possible. I like to start writing when I’m still half-asleep, in a state between dreaming and waking. Sunday is a big writing day for me, a cocoon day, so I don’t check emails or go into Manhattan. Before I write, I like to read obits in The Times because they’re well written and I like the little details. It gets the energy going in the morning. I really like the obits of old Hollywood actors and actresses." --Megan Abbott

Inquiring Minds Want To Know

DEATH NOTICE: Joseph A. “Monkey Butt” Zajaczkowski, 60, of Medina, NY, entered into rest on Saturday, July 30, 2016 at his home.


Yet one more example of why we need journalists to write obits. How can someone publish this kind of death notice and not explain the story behind the nickname?

Share your thoughts on pay

Meet The Great And Captivating Kay Powell

In a lovely profile published in the latest issue of Mental Floss, writer Margaret Eby declared SPOW's very own Kay Powell as "America's Greatest Obituary Writer."

It's hard to disagree with that.

Eby described the process Powell used to write more than 2,000 obits for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and to "paint a picture of a complex city and an evolving South, and go well beyond the tropes of the form."

Powell also shared this wonderful bit of advice for those working on the death beat:

"Our job was to answer questions, not raise questions. We always gave the cause of death. We wrote about suicides, even though many papers won’t. The question you’re afraid to ask is the question you must ask.”

Click here for the full story.

Jim Sheeler: Professor, Pulitzer Prize Winner, Premier Obit Writer

We cannot overstate what Jim Sheeler has contributed to the art of the obituary. His outstanding work has led him to become an author, professor, Pulitzer Prize winning reporter, and so much more. Now he's being honored by Case Western Reserve University where he teaches students to write stories outside their comfort zones. All of Jim's accomplishments and contributions are rooted in his excellent obituaries written early in his career. Check out what Case Western has to say about Jim being awarded the Carl F. Wittke Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching at its May 15 commencement ceremony.

For 3 decades, Mark Zaborney has penned the last word on Toledo's dead

A column in The Blade recently highlighted the illustrious career of SPOW's very own Mark Zaborney.

Thomas Walton shared stories about Zaborney's 32-year stint as the newspaper's obituary writer, and gave particular notice to how his "comforting, soothing style puts the family at ease during a difficult time."

“For me, obituaries are the history of the community, one person at a time," Zaborney said.


Click here to read the story.

WATCH: The new teaser trailer for 'Obit'

"Obit," the new documentary from director Vanessa Gould, gives viewers a behind-the-scenes look at The New York Times‘ obituary department.

Obit editor William McDonald, along with past and present staff writers Bruce Weber, Margalit Fox, William Grimes, Douglas Martin and Paul Vitello share their thoughts about what it's like to cover the death beat for a living.

Here's the latest teaser trailer for the film:

The latest trend: Obituaries featuring political commentary

Have you checked the obituaries lately? Several members of the recently departed have been using death notices to make one final plea to voters about who they should back in November.

SPOW President Maureen O'Donnell discussed this trend with WBBM 780/105.9FM. Click here to listen to the report.

The best books about obituaries

The Society of Professional Obituary Writers website features a list of books for obituary writers and readers. Do you have any suggestions for other tomes we should add? If so, email us your favorite titles.

Obits: The Movie

OBIT, a documentary by Vanessa Gould, opens at the TriBeCa Film Festival on April 17. Starring George Clooney, Cate Blanchett, Julia Roberts, Leonardo DiCaprio et al. Thanks to The New York Times reporter Bruce Weber for giving us a heads up on this.

Click here for a trailer preview of Ms. Gould's documentary on The New York Times obituaries. I can't wait until it hits my neighborhood theaters.

Margalit Speaks

The Paris Review published an interview with the inimitable Margalit Fox, The New York Times' 20-year obituary writer, in September 2014. Here's the top of Alex Ronan's interview with Margalit that's as good a read today as it was then.


In nearly twenty years and twelve hundred obituaries, Margalit Fox, a senior writer at the New York Times, has chronicled the lives of such personages as the president of Estonia, an underwater cartographer, and the inventor of Stove Top Stuffing. An instrumental figure in pushing the obituary past Victorian-era formal constraints, Fox produces features-style write-ups of her subjects whether they’re ubiquitous public figures, comparatively unknown men and women whose inventions have changed the world, or suicidal poets.  

(Photo by Ivan Farkas)

Click here for the full interview. I not only wish I could write as well as Margalit, I wish I could give as good an interview as her.

How to write your own obituary

Not famous enough to warrant a front-page obituary in the newspaper? Or perhaps your local media outlet has a limited staff and can't cover every death in the community. If you want to have your final story told, you may just have to write it yourself.

Here are a few tips on doing so.

Yes, more people really do die during the winter months

So why is this important? As Legacy.com founder Stopher Bartol noted:

"Because those who serve the needs of people experiencing the death of a friend or loved one should be aware that their services will typically be in greater demand in December, January and March than in June, August and September, and they must prepare accordingly. For example, if a newspaper picks one month to run public service announcements telling their readers about the obituary services they provide, they probably want that month to be sometime in late fall or winter when deaths are on their seasonal rise, so people will hear their message in advance of most needing to avail themselves of their services."

FMI: Click here.

Quote of the day

"Every morning I wake up and read the obituaries. And if I'm not in 'em, I have breakfast."
--Carl Reiner

Dying Words Reach A New Audience

Jeff Schmalz, The New York Times reporter who found his calling in writing about HIV and AIDS, is the subject of a new book and radio documentary titled “Dying Words.” Before Schmalz died in 1993 of complications of the disease, the 39-year-old journalist helped to change how the paper of record viewed gay people.

Between Nov. 15, 2015 and Jan. 10, 2016, the documentary will air on NPR affiliate stations across the U.S. Here is a list of locations and air dates. Or click below to listen to “Dying Words" now.

Attn: Someone Has Died

"It is a cruel thing, this wheel of obituary fortune. You can never be assured that your passage to eternal bliss will get the attention it deserves." --Thomas Vinciguerra

RIP Leonard Neft

Leonard Neft, a former obituary writer for the San Jose Mercury News, was identified this week as the third victim of a wildfire tearing through Northern California. He was 69.

In 1983, Neft told the Mercury News' Sunday magazine that despite tradition, obits shouldn't be reserved for famous people.

"I feel I can do an obit on a housewife who's never done anything," Neft said in the article. "It's a challenge to find out what people did that was interesting in their lives."

FMI: Click here.

Escaping to the death beat

What prompted Steve Miller to become an obituary writer? The September 11th terrorist attacks. In fact, he was in the South Tower working as a Wall Street technologist that day. Here’s his story.

Heather Lende Finds the Good

Two authors, one great interview in Salon.com. Marilyn Johnson, author of The Dead Beat ...etc., interviews Heather Lende about her newest book, Find The Good. Both women are standouts in the obits world. Do yourself a favor and read the interview. Then read the book.

Click here for the interview.

What life is like for the person who writes death notices

In the past 15 years, many newspapers have laid off their obituary writers, transferred these experienced journalists to other beats or pushed them out of the business with early retirement demands and buyouts. Why pay a reporter to write a fair and balanced story about someone's life when the family will pay money -- often a lot of money -- for a death notice?

But did you know that the person in the classified department who's paid to type those profitable ads also faces backlash about the publication's cash flow problems? As Adam Matcho noted in this essay for XOJane:

[My boss] asked if deaths were down this year in Westmoreland County, because revenue is down, and is that maybe something I would want to look into? He wanted me to email him back.

My boss and I, we’ve gone rounds on this before. He understands I am more concerned about not transposing two letters in one of those crazy last names from Polish Hill than how much money the paper makes. He understands people have to die for this department to make money. He understands I do not consider myself a salesperson. I consider myself an aide capable of typing 70 words per minute, a guide for people who are raw; people who react emotionally and hold fiercely to what they have left of the dead.

Click here to read the rest of Matcho's story.

The power of the last word

"Those who write about the dead face a similar conundrum: not only whether but how we should portray them. There seems to be an unspoken code, but it’s vague, nothing more than an urging to tread carefully. The code, if it exists at all, is an acknowledgment that those who write about the dead wield tremendous power—power that is largely uncontested. The dead can’t call up and contradict you; they can offer no alternate story. There is only interpretation and the potential to mangle. The people who write about the dead are playing with the only thing the dead have left—the stories we tell about them." --Laura Smith, The Paris Review

What is your code?

Tweet, tweet, we now tweet

Members of The Society of Professional Obituary Writers keep in touch in many ways. There's the website, this blog, our private Facebook page and the SPOW email. Now, per member request, SPOW has its very own Twitter page: http://twitter.com/obituarywriters.

If you are on Twitter, please follow @obituarywriters.

SPOW Elects New President

Maureen O'Donnell, award-winning obituary reporter for the Chicago Sun-Times, has been elected president of the Society of Professional Obituary Writers (SPOW).

SPOW is a professional organization for folks who write about the dead for a living. Since 2007, the society has provided professional training and resources to help writers develop reporting, interviewing, writing and new media skills for creating outstanding obituaries.

O'Donnell became the newspaper's obituary writer in 2009 after 20 years as a general assignment reporter, during which she wrote about crumbling conditions in Chicago schools, Mississippi River flooding, the 1996 Democratic National Convention in Chicago and the Jeffrey Dahmer slayings. Before joining the Sun-Times, she was a reporter and editor at the City News Bureau of Chicago; a criminal courts reporter for the Milwaukee Journal, and an associate editor at Adweek magazine.

A Chicago native and graduate of Loyola University's Mundelein College, her journalism awards include the Chicago Headline Club's Anne Keegan Award, SPOW awards for obituary-writing, the Illinois Associated Press Editors Association public service reporting award, the Illinois Gold Bell Award from the Mental Health Association in Illinois and a Lisagor award. She believes obituaries have some of the best writing in newspapers and online, and that they’re both send-offs and storytelling from eyewitnesses to history.

Focusing On The Sunny Side Of Obituary Writing

Author and journalist Heather Lende has spent nearly 20 years writing obituaries. Working for the Chillkat Valley News, a small newspaper in Haines, Alaska, has given her a unique insight into the community she covers and inspired her to write several books.

In her latest tome, "Find the Good," Lende shares some of the life lessons she's learned in the process of her work.

"Writing obituaries is my way of transcending bad news," she wrote. "It has taught me the value of intentionally trying to find the good in people and situations, and that practice -- and I do believe that finding the good can be practiced -- has made my life more meaningful."

Lende recently appeared on "A Beautiful World," a news program in Saint Paul, Minn., that focuses on inspirational stories from around the globe. You can listen to the extended interview here:





Want to win a copy of Lende's book? SPOW is giving away three free copies. To enter the drawing, simply send us an email and include your email and mailing addresses in the body as well as your reading format preference (ebook or hardcover). Deadline is June 30, 2015. Winners will be randomly chosen from all complete entries, and announced on The Obituary Forum.

From Obits To Arts, With Love

Andrew Meacham is stepping down, both from his position as SPOW's president and as the writer of the Tampa Bay Times' Epilogue obituary feature. Thankfully, he has agreed to remain an active member of the society, for which we are all very grateful.

As for his work with the newspaper, Meacham plans to transition to a different position, that of performing arts critic.

In his latest column, Meacham explained how much he enjoyed working on the death beat.

"Writing these obituaries — more than 1,000 in all — has been the best experience of my career," he wrote. "People have invited me into their homes, where they shared scrapbooks and old letters and memories of recently departed loved ones. It is impossible to overstate the graciousness I have experienced from these families at the worst times of their lives, or my gratitude at being able to tell those stories."

We all wish him great success in his new job.

Congrats To Maureen O'Donnell

Sun-Times obituary writer Maureen O'Donnell won the Anne Keegan Award on Friday for her “gifts of inquisitiveness and eye for the perfect anecdote.”

The honor, given by the Chicago Headline Club and named for the late Chicago Tribune columnist, was established in 2012 to recognize journalists “who tell stories of ordinary people in extraordinarily well-reported and well-written prose.”

Click here for more.

RIP Alana Baranick

It is with a sad heart that I share this news.

Alana Baranick, founder of the Society of Professional Obituary Writers and a long-time contributor to this forum, died on April 10 of cancer. She was 65.

Alana was an award-winning journalist who penned nearly 2,000 obituaries. She was also the co-author of "Life on the Death Beat," a champion of obituary writers and a dear friend.

Click here to read the wonderful obituary penned by Leila Atassi for The Plain Dealer.

Farewell, Alana. And rest in peace.

Thinking about obits, graphically

Early this morning, The Economist tweeted this chart to accompany its obituary of former Singapore Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew:

Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore: An astonishing record http://t.co/G02XATYydF pic.twitter.com/H4gK3fyjrR

— The Economist (@TheEconomist) March 23, 2015

I admit, I haven't given much thought to showing the deceased's life in graphics. What are some interesting charts, maps and infographics you've used to accompany your stories?

Unique Cause Of Death Listed In Family-Written Obit

When Stephan Merrill of Winter Haven, Fla., died earlier this month, his family didn't have an exact cause of death to list in his newspaper obituary. So they made one up, and had a bit of fun with it.

“It was worth it for the family. It was the only time the family was able to laugh in days,” Merrill’s close friend, Andrew Albreacht, told the local ABC affiliate WFTS. “We were all laughing, and it made the situation easier to deal with.”

Click here for more.

Obituary Writing: A Complex System Of Building Up Trust

Kay Powell, retired obituary writer for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, recently had a delightful chat with Bill Nigut on the radio program "Two Way Street." Click below to get the inside scoop on her writing process and to hear a few anecdotes about the ordinary people who were the subjects of her stories.

JOB: Creative Obituary Writer

LifeObits.com is recruiting for independent obituary writers with creative, consultative and respectfully techniques to meet with clients and co-author pre-planned obituaries as well as obituaries as needed by family members.

FMI: Click here.

Quote of the day

"Cornelius stepped away from the window as a servant brought him the morning paper. He took his place in a comfortable recliner and opened first to the obituaries, as was his daily custom, to see if anyone he disliked had died, but sadly the announcements held no joy." --Larry Correia, "Hard Magic"

Making a List….

I'm compiling a list of the 50 best books for obituary writers. These are the memoirs, anthologies, novels and reference guides that every journalist assigned to the death beat should read.

Here are the eight we already feature on our website:

"The Dead Beat: Lost Souls, Lucky Stiffs, and the Perverse Pleasures of Obituaries" by Marilyn Johnson

"Life After Death" by Nigel Starck

"Life on the Death Beat: A Handbook for Obituary Writers" by Alana Baranick, Stephen Miller and Jim Sheeler

"Deadlines: Obits of Memorable British Columbians" by Tom Hawthorn

"Obit: Inspiring Stories of Ordinary People Who Lived Extraordinary Lives" by Jim Sheeler

"If You Lived Here, I'd Know Your Name" by Heather Lende

"Final Salute" by Jim Sheeler

"Working the Dead Beat" by Sandra Martin

What other books should we include?

Oh you want this shirt? Here you go

You know that old cliche about the deceased giving someone the shirt off his/her back? Well, it's always wise to verify such a story before adding it to an obituary.

For example, when Oprah Winfrey eventually dies, her obit writers will be able to use a version of the line with confidence. Earlier this year, the talk show legend gave away a designer dress simply because a stranger asked her for it.

Cleveland Press Club honors obit writer

Obituary writer and SPOW member Mark Zaborney recently took second place in the Cleveland Press Club’s annual journalism competition.

Zaborney was honored for his obituary about Seymour Rothman, a veteran Blade columnist who "thrived among celebrities and everyday citizens."

Click here to read the obit.

Another one didn't "die"

Here's another one who didn't die. According to his obit in The Atlanta Journal Constitution, "John Dominic Jaramillo danced into spirit on June 6, 2014. He was a performing artist, professional Flamenco dancer, arts in education teacher, Native American educator, lover of life and collector of stories."
So, now you can add "danced into spirit"  to your collection of euphemisms for "died/"

a performing artist, professional Flamenco dancer, arts in education teacher, Native American educator, lover of life and collector of stories. - See more at: http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/atlanta/obituary.aspx?pid=171305172#sthash.27D5GrCX.dpuf

a performing artist, professional Flamenco dancer, arts in education teacher, Native American educator, lover of life and collector of stories. - See more at: http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/atlanta/obituary.aspx?pid=171305172#sthash.27D5GrCX.dpufHe 

a performing artist, professional Flamenco dancer, arts in education teacher, Native American educator, lover of life and collector of stories. - See more at: http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/atlanta/obituary.aspx?pid=171305172#sthash.27D5GrCX.dpuf

- See more at: http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/atlanta/obituary.aspx?pid=171305172

The bigger picture

When you write obituaries for a living, it's all too easy to become a creature of habit. You may ask family/friends the same questions over and over. Perhaps you use particular adjectives or phrases so often that they've become cliche. Or maybe you focus so much on the writing of an obit that you never think about examining the deceased's life in a new way (slideshows, audio interviews, video collages, Twitter tributes).

When this happens, it's a good idea to take a step back and start looking at the entire cemetery rather than the individual tombstone.

In the comments, please share your tips for bringing a fresh point of view to an obit. Do you read the competition? Study historical examples? Turn to technological upgrades for new ideas? How do you come up with new and interesting ways to tell the deceased's story?

On the death beat with Margalit Fox

Margalit Fox, a senior writer at The New York Times and the author of "The Riddle of the Labyrinth: The Quest to Crack an Ancient Code," has written more than 1,000 obituaries. Last week, in the "Story Behind The Story" column, she shared some of her experiences on the death beat.

"Almost every day, I am given a mystery to solve – the mystery of how a life was lived, and why that life, although it has run its course, matters vitally to us all.

For the past decade I have worked as an obituary news writer at The Times, most recently as a senior writer. The job – all-consuming, life-giving and never dull – is perhaps the strangest in American journalism but also one of the very best."

Click here for more.

Obit Writer Muses About Life, Love And Death

New York Times obituary writer Bruce Weber has published "Life Is a Wheel: Love Death, Etc., and a Bike Ride Across America," a new travelogue The Associated Press described as both "delightful" and "fascinating."

The book focuses on Weber and his decision at 57 to reprise the coast-to-coast bike ride he took 18 years earlier. The 4,122-mile adventure takes him more than 100 days to complete, with just a few days off for a wedding in New Orleans and a funeral in Los Angeles.

[Weber's] book is more than a chronicle of his two-wheel journey across endless prairie and farm fields and through countless small towns and suburbs. One of the most fascinating sections recalls the author's 1995 bike trip in Vietnam, a more gripping adventure than anything he encounters on his latest ride. He is arrested while riding alone in the jungle, then stranded without food or water, an episode he can now fondly look back on as "one of the great moments of my life."

For more information, click here.

Comments: Yea or Nay?

Should news organizations allow comments on obituaries?
	Yes
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Obituary Legend Pens Manual On Military Intelligence And Life

Jim Nicholson, retired Philadelphia Daily News obituary writer and the recipient of The Society of Professional Obituary Writers' first Lifetime Achievement Award, has published "Because No One Else Can -- Inside the Military Intelligence Secret Sausage Factory," a new book on military intelligence and life.

In a recent blog post, SPOW President Andy Meacham noted: "Like his career, there is nothing expected or usual in 'Because No One Else Can -- Inside the Military Intelligence Secret Sausage Factory.' This nearly 800-page tome, available on Amazon, is as he says, a textbook for intelligence analysts. It is also a history book, a primer on strategic thinking and an an amazingly full inside view of the kinds of challenges intelligence agents face in a post 9-11 world."

Click here to learn more.

WaPo Publishes Obituary Collection

Looking for a stocking stuffer for the obit writer in your life? Here's just the thing.

On Dec. 10th, The Washington Post, in partnership with Diversion Books, published "21 Lives In 2013: Obituaries from The Washington Post." This 121-page ebook, written by the newspaper's top-notch obituary writers, commemorates the lives of Nelson Mandela, Chinua Achebe, Esther Williams, Virginia Johnson, Gussie Moran, Josh Burdette and many more. Marilyn Johnson, author of "The Dead Beat: Lost Souls, Lucky Stiffs and The Perverse Pleasures of Obituaries," also penned the introduction.

Best of all? The book only costs $2.99. Click here to learn more.

Copy Editor Copy Edits His Own Obit

Michael J. Trojanowski, 77, a retired Detroit News copy editor, died on Nov. 9 of emphysema and complications from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. But before he died, the "consummate professional" reportedly copy edited his own obituary.

I wish I had met Trojanowski when he was alive. Not only was he a former journalist for the Associated Press, he was a fellow overnighter.

What Do We Owe The Dead?

Our fearless leader, Andy Meacham, discussed obituaries that are less-than-lauditory with HuffPost Live this week:

Sarah Silverman writes an obit

For her dog

September 4, 2013

I wrote an obituary type thing:

Duck "Doug" Silverman came into my life about 14 years ago. He was picked up by the State running through South Central with no collar, tags or chip. Nobody claimed or adopted him so a no-kill shelter took him in. That’s where I found him -- at that shelter, in Van Nuys. Since then we have slept most every night together (and many lazy afternoons.) When we first met, the vet approximated his age at 5 ½ so I’d say he was about 19 as of yesterday, September 3, 2013.

He was a happy dog, though serene. And stoic. And he loved love.

Over the past few years he became blind, deaf, and arthritic. But with a great vet, good meds, and a first rate seeing-eye person named me, he truly seemed comfortable.

Recently, however, he stopped eating or drinking. He was skin and bones and so weak. I couldn’t figure out this hunger strike. Duck had never been political before. And then, over the weekend, I knew. It was time to let him go.

My boyfriend Kyle flew in late last night and took the day off from work to be with us. We laid in bed and massaged his tiny body, as we love to do – hearing his little “I’m in heaven” breaths.

The doctor came and Kyle, my sister, Laura and I laid on the bed. I held him close – in our usual spoon position and stroked him. I told him how loved he was, and thanked him for giving me such happiness and for his unwavering companionship and love. The doctor gave him a shot and he fell asleep, and then another that was basically an overdose of sleeping meds. I held him and kissed him and whispered to him well passed his passing. I picked him up and his body was limp – you don’t think about the head – it just falls. I held him so tight. And then finally, when his body lost its heat, and I could sense the doctor thinking about the imminent rush hour traffic, I handed him over.

14 years.

My longest relationship.

My only experience of maternal love.

My constant companion.

My best friend.

Duck.

Jerry Vondas Dies At 83

Jerry Vondas, the feature obituary writer for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review for 15 years, died on Aug. 20 from an infection stemming from an automobile accident in March. He was 82.

“Jerry chronicled the lives of so many people in the city, from all walks of life,” said Tribune-Review Editor Frank Craig. “His words provided comfort to many families in a time of grief and made him a well-known, well-loved figure in our community. He took great pride in his work, and he leaves a wonderful journalistic legacy.”

For more, click here.

Self-Penned Partings

"Little Black Trains" Giveaway

The Society of Professional Obituary Writers is giving away three copies of "Little Black Trains" by Bob Chaundy on the Kindle.

To enter, send an email with the subject line, Little Black Trains. Include your email address and favorite quote about death or obituaries in the body of the email. You do not have to be a member of SPOW to participate.

Deadline is Aug. 10.

Winners will be selected at random from all properly-formatted entries.

JUST PUBLISHED: "Little Black Trains"

Freelance journalist Bob Chaundy has published a new comic murder mystery featuring, you guessed it, an obituary writer!

Here's the summary for "Little Black Trains: A Tale of Life, Death and Commuting" (Shaftoe Publishing, June 2013):

A prominent BBC reporter is murdered in mysterious circumstances. Her colleague, Ben Murray, has to produce her obituary for that day’s TV news bulletins. Ben commutes each day by train with another obituary writer, Steve Graham from The National Herald newspaper. Listening to Ben’s stories convinces Steve to move from sport to obituaries at his paper. Despite their shared profession, they differ in the subjects they choose. While Ben deals with the famous, Steve prefers the Morris dancer who performed before The Queen with a ferret down his trousers or the singing bus conductor. Sometimes Steve includes more details in his obits than is good for him. One thing they agree on, though, is that obituaries are about life, not death.

Among the odd characters they and their clique encounter on their daily commute is an old woman they call The Crone. One day, Steve spies her in the street and decides to follow her out of curiosity. As a result, he becomes accidentally embroiled in a web of murder and intrigue that sucks his friends in too and provides him with plenty of material for his weekly obituary column.

During his two decades at the BBC, Chaundy produced hundreds of obituaries for television and the Web, so he has the inside track on what it really means to be an obit writer. "Little Black Trains" is his debut novel, and one he describes as "by far and away his best."

Indian obits

As Factiva has added more Indian and Pakistani news sources I've been glancing at their obits. The subcontinent is a huge source of English-language journalism and other writing. What I particularly like about it, beyond the details of lives abroad, is the stylistic differences to American and modern England English.

Check out the first graf here for vocabulary: "is no more" stedda "died." Also "doyen," "breathed his last" and "last remains." Later: "broked," "condoled,"

The attention to the manner of death reminds me of 19th century obits, which frequently included dramatic accounts of the deceased's last moments. You almost never see that nowadays.

Tea doyen Hemen Barooah passes away

580 words

31 July 2013

Assam Tribune

HNASST

English

Copyright 2013. Assam Tribune (P) Ltd.

GUWAHATI, July 31 -- Hemendra Prasad Barooah, the doyen of the State's tea industry is no more. According to senior journalist Wasbir Hussain, who authored the biography of Barooah, the tea planter had gone to Bangkok on July 27 for a medical check-up. Today around 2 pm Bangkok time, he returned to his hotel from the hospital and when he was taking his lunch he suddenly felt uncomfortable and despite the best efforts of the doctors of the hospital which was conducting the medical check-up, Barooah breathed his last around 3-30 pm Bangkok time. Hussain said the senior executives of Barooah's company will rush to Bangkok tonight and after consulting the members of his family, would arrive at a decision on where to bring the last remains of Barooah. Abhijit Sarma, a former chairman of the Assam Tea Planters' Association (ATPA) said Barooah was 86. According to Sarma, Barooah was accompanied by one of his nieces in his journey to Bangkok.

Barooah leaves behind two daughters and a host of relatives. 

A Harvard University alumnus, Barooah set up a corporate house Barooah and Associates with its headquarter in Kolkata. He was a chairman of the Indian Tea Association (ITA). The ITA got itself involved in the construction of the Pragjyoti ITA Centre for Performing Arts at Machkhowa in the city during his tenure as its chairman. Barooah was also a founder of the Assam Tea Brokers Pvt Ltd, the first tea broking house of the State. He was also a chairman of the Bengal Chamber of Commerce and founder and chairman of the Kaziranga Golf Resort. 

Barooah is also known for his involvement in cultural activities and as an art connoisseur. He produced the Hindi feature film Ek Pal directed by Kalpana Lajmi. Dr Bhupen Hazarika scored the music for the film, Sarma said. Wasbir Hussain said Barooah also collected 600 paintings of doyens like M F Hussain. Barooah was honoured by the Central Government with the Padmashree this year. Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi while condoling the death of Barooah, described him as a distinguished industrialist. 

His death is an irreparable loss to society, said the Chief Minister. Asom Gana Parishad president Prafulla Kumar Mahanta has condoled the death of Barooah as a great loss to the society. State BJP president Sarbananda Sonowal also mourned the death of Barooah. North Eastern Tea Association chairman Bidyananda Barkakoty mourned the death of Barooah. Barooah will, however, continue to inspire those involved in State's tea industry and would remain icon of the industry.

 Abhijit Sarma, past chairman of the ATPA deeply mourned the death of Barooah and said the State's tea industry has lost a leader with his death. Wasbir Hussain described Barooah as a multi-faceted personality and for him the tea business was not the only passion. He was a social and cultural ambassador of Assam, because of his immense interest in art, culture and music of the State. It will be difficult to fill the void, he added. 

Gautam Prasad Barooah, retired tea executive and a close associate of Barooah described his demise as a big loss to Assam. He said that Barooah worked silently for development of the State in various spheres like industry, culture and films.

Published by HT Syndication with permission from Assam Tribune.

For any query with respect to this article or any other content requirement, please contact Editor at htsyndication@hindustantimes.com
The Assam Tribune Pvt Ltd

Death and the obit writer's life

Enjoyed this chance to talk about what we do, at least my experience of it, for this online magazine. 

Can Eliot Spitzer improve his obit with a stellar comeback?

My name is Joe Coscarelli and I'm a reporter for New York magazine. I'm writing to with hopes of gaining some (potentially light-hearted) insight about obituaries from professionals, specifically in reference to Eliot Spitzer's -- a long time from now, God willing.

When his prostitution scandal first broke in 2008, there was a mention from a friend in the Times about how the scandal did not have to lead his obituary:

“I told him that I think, in the end, this incident will be a footnote to a great life lived greatly, and that he still has the ability to make enormous contributions,” said Alan M. Dershowitz, the Harvard law professor, who once counted Mr. Spitzer as a student and now counts him as a friend. “One of his goals has to be to make this a footnote in his obituary, and not make it the lead.”

A year later, a similar subject was touched upon in Spitzer's interview with Vanity Fair:

“Do you think the scandal will ever go away?,” I asked.
“No. My obituary’s written,” [Spitzer] replied with shocking finality. “And that is a very hard thing to live with.”

My question is, in light of his comeback and campaign for NYC comptroller: What would Spitzer have to do to not have his misdeeds lead his obit? Would he have to win this seat? Become mayor? President? Is there any hope for him?

I'd love to chat with any obit writers or editors you might be able to connect me with, whether via email or by phone at 212 508 0593.

Any help would be much appreciated!

Ever Hopeful

"Writing obituaries is usually the first job a new reporter gets, a place to cut his or her teeth and learn the writing craft. Chomping at the bit to get to 'harder news,' reporters have long chafed at the seemingly boring job of compiling death notices. I am different in that I think writing an obituary is an honor and a respectful way to mark one person’s passage on this plane. I hope we all get a good one when our time comes." --Barbara Morgan

Giving The Dead A Voice

If you'd like to add audio clips to your obituaries, but aren't sure how to do it, there's a new tool that can help. It's called Soundcite.

Soundcite was produced by the Northwestern University Knight Lab as a way to make inline audio "easy and seamless" to produce. Simply record your audio file (in AIFF, WAVE, FLAC, OGG, MP2, MP3, AAC, AMR or WMA formats) and upload it to SoundCloud. Or, if you don't have your own audio, search the SoundCloud directory for the clip you need. Then, copy the file's URL into the Soundcite page, and it'll give you the embed code for the online version of your story.

For example, I wanted to add audio to my Christopher Hitchens obit. I searched SoundCloud and found that HachetteAudio had uploaded an excerpt from his memoir "Hitch 22." I grabbed the URL, pasted it into Soundcite and embedded the code into the obit. Very easy.

Pet obits

Like writing children's books, I suspect that writing obits about one's pets is one of those things a lot of people assume they can do well -- until it's time to actually do it.  I am never sure I want to read about someone's pet who has died.  I figure it's probably going to contain elements of endearing, poignant, funny and of course, the dreaded arc of life we are "lucky" enough to watch by outliving dogs, especially, to the extent that we usually do.

I know the writer is going to go from puppyhood to dysplasia. Worst case scenario, I'll probably read about the expectant eyes on the trip to the vet's office at the end.  "Are we going to the park?"  None of that sort of thing appears in this obit of a golden retriever, written by Daniel Ruth of the Tampa Bay Times, who also just won a Pulitzer for his political columns.

Something We Never Want To Experience

We regret that due to technical difficulties, the report on Nelson Mandela's death was unintentionally published. @dw_english

— DW (English) (@dw_english) June 14, 2013

(h/t Romenesko)

What is the future of obits?

Here are a few of my ideas:

What are your thoughts?

(Note: Additional resources available at http://bit.ly/futureofobits)

Missed The SPOW Conference In Toronto?

No worries! Tamara Baluja at J-Source: The Canadian Journalism Project live-blogged Saturday's workshops. Click here to read a running commentary of the day's events.

New Facebook Group for Grimsters!

Jade Walker was asked - or volunteered - to set up a Facebook Group for obit writers. You must check it out.

On the new FB group page for grimsters, we have posted the names of the winners of the SPOW Awards which were presented during the SPOW Conference in Toronto this past weekend.

We'll post them on the Obituary Forum blog too, but we want to lure you to the FB group first.

More to come - both on this blog and our FB group page - on awards, the fabulous Toronto conference, future conferences, the future of SPOW and more!

Riddle of the Labyrinth: a kind of extended obit

From Kathryn Schulz' review of New York Times senior obituary writer Margalit Fox's The Riddle of the Labyrinth -- The Quest to Crack and Ancient Code (Ecco Press 2013) in New York Magazine:

That beat does not normally make celebrities of its practitioners, so it says a lot about Fox’s writing ability that her obits have acquired something of a cult following. The form demands three things: a nose for interesting facts, the ability to construct a taut narrative arc, and a Dickens-level gift for concisely conveying personality.

Here is Fox's take on her craft and how she became interested in the work of Brooklyn College classics professor Alice Kober, who died in 1950.  Her cursory, resume-like obit at the time barely mentions Linear B, an endless series of pictograms unearthed in ancient Greece no one could decipher.  Yet Kober's largely unrecognized work over decades made cracking the code possible.  Fox's newly released Riddle of the Labyrinth seems like the best kind of book to come out of newsrooms, in which writers decide to take a subject that's not due at 6 p.m. today and follow it wherever it leads. 

EBITS - the latest online obituary venture - fires a warning shot....

Pretty lame.

MyEbituary LLC Declares Death of the Obituary with New Social Media-Based Ebits On Myebit.com, users can create and interact with virtual memorial scenes KENOSHA, Wis., May 15, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Conventional obituaries may have been laid to rest as MyEbituary LLC, a new memorial site startup, introduces ebituaries to the world of social media. Ebits, as they are called, allow users to create a unique type of online obituary that centers upon an interactive scene of remembrance that can be customized with various landscapes, headstones, urns and other decorations that users embed into the scene. (Photo:  http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130515/PH14068-a) (Photo:  http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130515/PH14068-b) Hoping to change the outdated mode of conventional obituaries that have not evolved with the expansion in interactive online graphics applications, the company expects to eventually have ebits created for the approximately 8,000 people who pass away each day in the United States. According to company president Michael Boozer, "People deserve to be remembered online by something more than just a static photograph and some text placed on a webpage, especially with today's technology." Ebits can be created for loved ones who have passed away or for current users who want to stake out a plot in the virtual world. Resembling a social media profile, myebit.com allows people to write their own ebituary in advance and share their ebits across major social media networks like Facebook and Twitter. The scenes are interactive allowing visitors to show their respects by placing tributes such as flowers, awareness ribbons, crosses and other objects directly into the scene. Tributes can be embedded anywhere into the scene along with a short message of condolence that appears when hovering over it. Scenes are designed using a variety of different landscapes or users can upload their own, such as an actual photograph of a real cemetery, allowing distant friends and relatives the opportunity to reflect upon the deceased. Headstones or urns, engraved with an epitaph, are provided in numerous colors and styles while decorations, such as plants, trees, animated birds and other objects can be embedded into the scene to create a unique place of remembrance. "We wanted to replicate an actual cemetery or other resting place, where visitors are free to leave flowers and other tributes around a grave or other type of memorial," adds Mr. Boozer, stating that "Users can also designate caretakers to manage their ebit, who can decorate it for special occasions and manage tributes that are placed by others, just like in real life." Other features of the site allows users to create their own "Bucket List" and write their own "Last Words" that are unlocked upon their passing. Users can also create their own family burial plot by sharing the headstones of others and placing them into their scene for a single place of reflection. Launched in time for the Memorial Day holiday, the site is directed towards U.S. users but can be accessed worldwide by visiting myebit.com via the web or any mobile device. MyEbituary LLC was founded in Kenosha, Wisconsin in 2011 Phone: (715) 869-3248 Contact: Michael Boozer Email Media Kit with Video and Image Downloads: www.myebit.com/press This press release was issued through eReleases® Press Release Distribution. For more information, visit http://www.ereleases.com. SOURCE MyEbituary LLC Web Site: https://www.myebit.com

Humorous Death Notices - an emerging subgenre?

It's not like we haven't seen funny death notices and homespun remembrances in the past, but recently we've had some great ones and after reading Antonia Larroux's, I'm wondering if we're seeing a full-scale trend

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/nytimes/obituary.aspx?n=antonia-larroux&pid=164596250

Recall:

Harry Stamps

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/sunherald/obituary.aspx?pid=163538353

Relatedly - but not quite the same thing - the very funny Val Patterson who used his death notice to reveal his lack of PhD and his safe-stealing legacy

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/saltlaketribune/obituary.aspx?n=val-patterson&pid=158526785

From a couple years ago:

Michael "Flathead" Blanchard

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/denverpost/obituary.aspx?pid=156944598

Obit contest deadline is May 4!

Multiple categories to suit your style.  Get your work out there for others to see.  Read about criteria and entry procedures on the new SPOW website.

A friends's diligent search

Whose life is "worthy" of a newspaper obituary?  Standards vary all over the place, of course, with papers such as the New York Times explicitly reserving that distinction for people of significant accomplishment.

By that definition alone, Roy Harris a former Wall Street Journal repoter and CFO magazine editor, figured his friend, artist Martyl Langsdorf, deserved more recognition than she got upon her death at 96. Langsdorf's "Doomsday clock" cover illustration for the June 1947 Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists , the minute hand approaching midnight, became a symbol for the nuclear threat worldwide and, later, climate change.

But even as a seasoned journalist, Harris discovered that selling editors of the largest newspapers on the value of an obit subject is easier said than done.  Here is his interesting account of his ultimately successful struggle to gain some recognition for a singular life. 

The Future of Obituaries

Greetings, friends. I've been invited to give a lecture at the SPOW conference about the future of obituaries and I need your assistance. If you're willing to help, please complete this 5-minute survey. I promise to share the results in June.

New SPOW website

The new website is SocietyOfProfessionalObituaryWriters.org. You will find basic Toronto conference information there and a link to register (as with the post below). At the moment the link above, "Click here to return to the Society of Professional Obituary Writers," goes to a defunct website, but that will soon be changed to go to the new one.

Society of Professional Obituary Writers Conference

 (re-posting the earlier item about the conference)

The 2013 SPOW Conference will be held in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, June 7-9, 2013.

Go to http://www.eventbrite.com/event/5639271212# for a bit more information and to register.

Return to Obituary Forum for more details to be provided by local host Ron Csillag and his Canadian team.

A couple of thoughts on the NY Times obit controversy

Update:  I've thought about this some more (unlike most, apparently, I find this a tricky subject), and would qualify my post below in one way:  While I think most outraged readers of the Brill obit made little effort to get into the writer's head and imagine why he did what he did in the lede -- like, maybe this aspect of domesticity was that important to the subject?  and obits are about subject, not anyone else? -- it is still on  anyone publishing anything to anticipate public reaction.  I respect Martin and McDonald for standing behind their story (under Copernican pressure to recant), but the fact that they had no idea they might get the flak is on them.

One more note:  In discussion of this obit on the blog Jezebel, Andrea Tierson contributed this:

Maybe the Times was trying to humanize its subject. cf. the lede of the paper's Albert Einstein obit (1955): 

"In 1904, Albert Einstein, then an obscure young man of 23, could be seen daily in the late afternoon wheeling a baby carriage on the streets of Bern, Switzerland, halting now and then, unmindful to the traffic around him, to scribble down some mathematical symbols in the notebook that shared the carriage with his infant son, also named Albert."

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/topics/einstein-obit.pdf

Looks like he's being noted as world's best dad before his scientific prowess is mentioned.


Here is what is known about a New York Times obituary on rocket scientist Yvonne Brill, and the Twitter outrage that followed.The story's original lede read as follows:

She made a mean beef stroganoff, followed her husband from job to job and took eight years off work to raise three children. 'The world's best mom,' her son Matthew said.

After a lot of outraged reactions on social media, the lede was subsequently changed to read:

She was a brilliant rocket scientist who followed her husband from job to job and took eight years off from work to raise three children. “The world’s best mom,” her son Matthew said.

"New York Times Changes Sexist Obit About Scientist Yvonne Brill," the Daily Beast proclaimed.  "Responsive!" a Twitter follower noted approvingly.

Beyond reversing the order of her scientific and domestic lives and removing the stroganoff reference, the story remained unchanged.

Sullivan in a blog post today summarized her thoughts and the paper's decision to alter its lede.  She cited an interesting and useful Columbia Journalism Review article which alerts writers to avoid gender stereotyping when writing about female scientists; spoke with Martin and William McDonald, his editor (both of whom stood behind the original story); and concluded that framing the story as one about gender "had the effect of undervaluing what really landed Mrs. Brill on the Times obituaries page: her groundbreaking scientific work."

As an early and lonely defender of this obit, I would like to make just a few points:

The CJR article Sullivan cited as instructive in avoiding gender stereotypes quotes one of its primary sources saying it is legitimate in her view to bring gender discrimination issues into a profile of a woman in science:

For instance, if you’re writing a story about sexism in science or about the gender gap in leadership roles in science or you’re writing about sex-related issues specifically.
 
What’s not ok is to turn a story about a scientist’s professional life into one about her personal life or her gender roles..

Brill was denied the option of majoring in her chosen field of engineering at the University of Manitoba, ostensibly due to a lack of accommodations.  While I understand that obits about any minority or underrepresented group present ready-made cliches for the taking -- and that one of these can be that the subject "overcame barriers" -- not being able to major in your chosen field to me seems like an obstacle worth reporting.

No fair reading of Martin's obit could lead one to conclude that Brill's many contributions, from developing more efficient rocket thrusters to contributing to rocket and satellite designs -- work that landed her in the Inventors Hall of Fame -- were remarkable because, as the CJR piece correctly warns us against doing, "She accomplished all of this while being a woman!"

The stroganoff lede that aroused so much controversy sets up a different, and more complicated, kind of contrast -- between a woman who preferred to be addressed as "Mrs.," and who embraced some of those societal norms about gender while, yes, overcoming them.

Also on Monday, writer Paul Carr on pandodaily took on what he called "readers of the Daily Internet Outrage Memo."  It's an interesting take, and the points he makes about writing are particularly relevant.

At the same time, I would not dismiss objections to the original lede as groundless.  I can  see how it looks: after a century of consciousness raising about gender equality and seemingly great strides forward, an eminent newspaper bends over backwards to link a brilliant female scientist to her cooking.

I just think a lot of the people protesting this are getting the story wrong.